QUARTERED SEA by Tanya Huff
*** - Entertaining

We've advanced a good many years since "No Quarter" ended and spiraled on to a new batch of main characters. Queen Jelena has been lost in grief since her mother was killed by a freak accident a year ago, and during her weakness the Bardic Captain, Kovar, has taken up the reins of running Shkoder. So when Queen Jelena suddenly reclaims some of her fire and decides to send a ship beyond the known world to find the home of the "dark sailor" of bardic song Kovar does everything but slap her hand and tell her no. Going against the wishes of the Bardic Captain makes it hard to get bardic recruits to go on this mission, but one bard is more than happy to take this opportunity to prove himself to the world, Benedikt.

Benedikt sing the strongest water that the bards have ever known, but he also is unable to sing any of the other three quarters. His inability to invoke air (a quarter sung by every single other bard of Shkoder) makes him feel inadequate and often leads to pouty sessions of self-doubt. But when Queen Jelena seems to believe in him and need him so much he takes up the seemingly impossible mission with the handful of other brave sailors and sets off in the Starfarer for uncharted territory.

There were rumors of giant water kigh who only live far out in the sea, and when a storm began to thrash the Starfarer Benedikt gets to meet these kigh of legend. But they've never heard a bard's song before, and though Benedikt gives everything he can to his Song, the Starfarer is taken down into the churning depths of the sea.

That should be the end of Benedikt's trip, but when he wakes up naked on a foreign beach with two dark skinned heads staring down at him he knows that his story has only just begun.

Tanya Huff obviously takes a lot of joy in creating new civilizations for her books because each one is very developed and has layer upon layer of social infrastructure to navigate. The "dark sailor's" society is no less complex and entertaining to experience than the when I was first introduced to Shkoder and it's bards. In fact, Huff seems to have taken a particular joy in creating this one as her attention to detail gives the culture a life of its own. The class system is beautifully laid out with the number of braids in your hair, or the lack thereof if you've been shaved, delineating your rank. I particularly enjoyed the way she set up the households with either the highest ranking woman "xaan" or highest ranking man "tul" ruling the house depending on which person was ruling the most powerful household at the time. When a tul ruled the most powerful house, all other tuls in their respective houses were given control. And when the tul died all power passed to the xaan's of the households. This is called "the change" and it's something that Benedikt steps right into when he washes up on shore.

Unfortunately as much as I enjoyed the culture that Huff created I did not enjoy the main character. Benedikt took every opportunity to whine about his inadequacies whether that be the fact that he only Sings one quarter, or that nobody loves him, or whatever is bothering him at the moment. There were countless times when I wanted to shake him and tell him to shut up, and that rather detracts from the enjoyment of a book. "Wah wah wah, I Sing the most powerful water that any bard has ever known, but that doesn't matter because no one loves me and everyone thinks I suck because I only sing one quarter. Wah wah wah!" On a bright note, it was great to see a love struck Bannon try to deal with his new inwash of emotions.

If Benedikt's character had been less whiny and more endearing I would have given this book 4 stars easily. But, sadly enough his constant "woe is me-ing" just took too much away from my enjoyment to let me really get into and devour this book. It took me almost two weeks to read, and that's almost unheard of! This is, IMHO, the weakest of the Four Quarters books. I'd still recommend it to a fan of Huff to read, but it wouldn't be at the top of my list.

- Katie Wilks
May 1st, 2005